Put the Load Right on Me

Legalism is a beast.  It's massive.  And it's mean.  That's exactly the dragon Paul is attempting to slay in his letter to the Galatians.  

The Judaizers have duped these new believers to believe a counterfeit gospel of "do-it-yourself" salvation (Gal 1:6; 2:4; 3:1-3).  

These spiritual snake oil salesmen have convinced them that Jesus might get us into His kingdom but it's up to each one of us to stay there.  And that requires a heavy load and incredibly hard work.

Paul lets us know that any self-salvation project is not just hard but impossible (Gal 3:10-11).  He whacks away at the Judaizers and their teaching like a pinata for four chapters (Gal 2-5).  Placing our faith and trust in Jesus is the ONLY way to be saved and stay saved.  

He lived the perfect life we could never live.  He died the brutal death that we should have died.  He rose to a new life that we don't deserve.  

Only when I accept what He did for me that I could never do for myself can I be absolutely assured of right standing before a holy God.

The Judaizers have laid a massive burden on the shoulders of each member of the Galatian church.  So much so that no one was able to help one another.  

They were so consumed with dragging their own spiritual load that there was no time or energy to love and serve each other.  

It's the very same reason Jesus called out the Pharisees.  "For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one your fingers" (Lk 11:46).  

The Judaizers have loaded up the Galatians and left them to fend for themselves.  That's NOT what life in the church is about.  Not in the least.

Paul tells us, "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ" (v2).  The verb here is the Greek word βασταζω/bastazo.  

It means to carry, lift up, support and endure.  The term was often used to describe the bearing a difficult load.  

"Burden" is the Greek noun βαρος/baros.  This means a massive weight that is particularly exhausting and next to impossible.  

It was often used to describe the max on a scale.  It's big.  REALLY big!  HUGE!!  MASSIVE!!!  

(This is very different from the "load" that each one of us is to bear in Gal 6:5.  There Paul is letting us know that each person is accountable for the routine daily stuff of life.)

The apostle lets us know that we're free in Jesus from the impossible burden of legalism so that we can be free to help each other with the weight that life sets on their shoulders.  

"For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery" (Gal 5:1).  

Jesus consistently proclaimed, "For My yoke is easy and My burden is light" (Mt 11:30).  He calls us to give Him our load.  "Cast your burden on the LORD, and He will sustain you" (Ps 55:22).

In the words of The Band, "You put the load right on Me."

As God's Spirit empowers each of us, we're to love with the sacrificial love of Jesus.  We're "to bear with the failings of the weak" (Rom 15:1).  We're to "encourage the fainthearted, help the weak" (1Th 5:14).  

As a matter of fact, one very important reason that we go through our own difficulties is so that we can come alongside others and lend a strong shoulder whenever they face hard times (2Cor 1:3-4).

Put the load right on me.

When we shoulder the load for our friends, we're fulfilling "the law of Christ" (v2).  That's exactly what Paul was talking about when he wrote, "Do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.  For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself'" (Gal 5:13-14).  

We've been set free to love.  We've been set free to serve.  

Put the load right on me.

Jesus gave His crew last minute instructions the night before He died.  "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another" (Jn 13:34).  

This new command talked about a new kind of love.  A sacrificial love of action.  Not a warm fuzzy feeling.  But a putting God first and others second kind of love.  It's the love of sacrifice.  Just as Jesus loved that's how we're to love.

Just put the load right on me.

©2012

Jay Jennings